The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Helleborus plant, botanically known as Helleborus orientalis, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘HLR 140’.
The new Helleborus plant is a product of a planned breeding program in Glandorf, Germany. The objective of the breeding program was to create new uniform Helleborus cultivars with unique and attractive flower coloration and resistance to pests.
The new Helleborus plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventor in Glandorf, Germany in November, 2002 of two unnamed proprietary seedling selections of Helleborus orientalis, not patented. The new Helleborus plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Glandorf, Germany in February, 2005.
Asexual reproduction of the new Helleborus plant by divisions in a controlled greenhouse environment in Glandorf, Germany since March, 2005, has shown that the unique features of this new Helleborus plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.